Health AI Central
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Arthritis Rheumatol2026September 17, 2026Journal Article

Comparative Safety of Common Immunosuppressant Therapies in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Target Trial Emulation Study.

Alí Duarte-García1,2, Marlon J Sandino-Bermúdez1, Mariana González-Treviño1, Cynthia S Crowson1,3, Rozalina G McCoy2,4,5, Yihong Deng2,6
1Division of Rheumatology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
2Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
3Department of Quantitative Health Sciences, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States.
4Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, & Nutrition, Department of Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD.
5University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing, North Bethesda, MD.
6Optum Labs, Eden Prairie, MN, United States.
PubMed DOI

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Compare infection-related hospitalization risk among patients with non-renal SLE initiating commonly used immunosuppressants. METHODS: We emulated a target trial using Optum Labs Data Warehouse claims to compare the risk of infection-related hospitalization among patients initiating azathioprine, belimumab, methotrexate, or mycophenolic acid analogues (MPAA) between March 2011 and Sept…

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